Chevron Corp. agreed to buy Noble Energy for about $5-billion in shares as the oil giant looks to beef up in the Permian Basin amid the wreckage of the worst-ever crude crash.
The takeover is the industry’s first major deal since the coronavirus triggered a severe slump and the largest since Occidental Petroleum outbid Chevron to acquire Anadarko Petroleum for $37-billion last year.
The deal will grow Chevron’s presence in both the Permian, once the main driver of the shale boom, and the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado. Its proved reserves will rise by about 18%. Buying Noble also enlarges Chevron’s footprint in the Eastern Mediterranean by adding the Leviathan gas field off the coast of Israel.